Amanda Abbington will ‘remain best friends’ with Martin Freeman

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Amanda Abbington says she will "remain best friends" with Martin Freeman, despite their split.

The 42-year-old actress and ‘The Hobbit’ star – who share 10-year-old son Joe and eight-year-old daughter Grace – announced their split earlier this week after 16 years together, and says the decision to call time on their romance was not born out of "hostility", and they reached the decision to end their relationship mutually.

She said: "Martin and I remain best friends and love each other, and it was entirely amicable.

"There was no hostility, really, we just said that we couldn’t live together anymore, so we put everything in place, he moved out to a flat in north London, I stayed at home and we’ve started a new chapter.

"It is sad and it is upsetting, because you think you’re going to be with someone forever, but you either do that or you break up, and we both came to the decision that splitting was best for us. We’ve been really lucky to make it such a clean break, especially for the kids."

Amanda cites the 45-year-old actor’s hectic schedule as one of the reasons for their split, as his heightening demand as a Hollywood star meant the ‘Mr Selfridge’ actress got used to being "separate" from him.

She added to an upcoming edition of The Sunday Telegraph newspaper: "You can’t be away from people for too long, because you start to function on your own, and you get used to being separate [from] the person you’re supposed to be with. You lose that connection and lose sight of it, in the end."

Despite their split the family will still enjoy Christmas together, and Amanda has put no restrictions on how often Martin can see their brood.

She said: "He sees the children as much as he wants to, and [will spend] Christmas here. We play it by ear on childcare, and it’s working so far.

"They’ll get the best of us now, which is far better than living in a house that’s not harmonious."

Meanwhile, the pair are set to star together in upcoming fourth series of ‘Sherlock’ – which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular detective – as John Watson and his wife Mary.

Amanda Abbington’s full interview is available in the Sunday Telegraph, which hits newsstands on January 1 2017.